Touch Optimization

Keys respond predictably. The action speaks effortlessly.
Scales and passages are surprisingly even.
Those are the hallmarks of a touch-optimized action.

Mario Igrec has developed
Practical Touch™, a system
for grand piano touch analysis and redesign, to be able
to reproduce the touch of the finest modern pianos. Based on
the touch metrology of David Stanwood and on
recent research on action inertia, but providing a time-saving,
pragmatic methodology, Practical Touch offers all the advantages of
competing techniques at a fraction of the time—and cost.
By combining
this technology with his piano playing experience, Mario
transforms the piano action into a superbly responsive
mechanism that provides unsurpassed uniformity and
control, and just
enough inertial resistance to even out your passagework
and expand the expressive range of even the loudest dynamics.

Without adjusting hammer and shank weights. This technique
is appropriate for pianos with relatively new, high-quality
hammers that the owner likes and that won't need to be replaced for years to come.
The hammers remain on the action rack, their alignment with
strings and their voicing are not disturbed, and only minor
hammer weight modifications are performed. Even though the
hammers do vary in weight somewhat, the
result is a very high degree of control in soft playing and
a sense of great mechanical and tonal evenness. The variations
in hammer weight and key leading that remain are both
tonally and mechanically well below the
threshold of perception for most pianists.

Smoothing hammer and shank weights provides exceptional
consistency in the action's inertial response. After we analyze
the action, we calculate the optimal hammer weights and choose
replacement parts based on their geometry and effect on the
action leverage ratio. We test sample hammers and action parts,
measure the touch response, and then rebuild the action with
new parts. This option is more expensive, but provides the
ultimate touch response with unprecedented evenness and control.